Betty Jameson - 4-time WTGA Champion

LPGA founder and World Golf Hall of Famer Betty Jameson played in her first WTGA State Amateur as a 14 year old in 1933. Her foray into Texas amateur golf came during a historic era when seemingly every name on each year’s Championship flight bracket has a claim to greatness. In this extremely competitive era, it took Jameson four attempts to win her first State Amateur title. She failed to win in 1933, 34 and 35 – years when the championship was claimed by Hall of Fame members Aniela Gorczyca Goldthwaite and Babe Didrickson Zaharias. She had already won the Women’s Southern Amateur Championship when she finally claimed the WTGA State Amateur in 1936, and it was her first of four consecutive victories (1936-1939). She also won the US Women’s Amateur title in 1939 and 1940, but lost in her bid to win a 5th straight State championship in 1940.

Following her successful amateur career, Jameson continued her winning ways among the professional ranks. She lost in the finals of the inaugural US Women’s Open, and won the title the following year. She is one of only seven women in history to win both the US Women’s Amateur and Open. In 1950, she joined fellow Texans Zaharias and Bettye Danoff, and 10 others in forming the Ladies Professional Golf Association. She is a member of the Texas and World Golf Hall of Fame.

100 Texas Women is a blog with each post featuring a different notable woman from the history of Texas golf. You can honor these women and invest in the next 100 years of women's golf by contributing to the Breaking 100 campaign. All proceeds benefit the TGA Foundations' Women's Initiatives. Learn more and support the campaign here.